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Let's Make a Den
"Let's Make a Den," originally titled "Let's Make a Din," is a song by Andy Partridge. It originally appeared in 1987 as a B-side to the "The Meeting Place" 12" single. It later appeared on the 2002 Coat of Many Cupboards box set. Quotes Andy: “This is the demo of the song that Todd Rundgren had decreed should open side two of the album Skylarking. We started it in his studio near Woodstock in the U.S., but it got argued to death. He didn't like the 7/4 time signature in the verses, I insisted they were essential to the ‘young kids, full of energy, falling over themselves’ feel. He pulled, I pulled, the song fell apart, we buried the pieces and chose to work on ‘Earn Enough For Us’ instead. “This is very related to Colin's ‘Grass’, both he and I could tell you where that den would have been, either near the ‘Logs’ or ‘Rocket’ in the Minety Hill ‘Rec’, or more likely, down the ‘Dumps’, south of Winterslow Road. Making a den was one of the chief occupations of young kids. They'd be built with whatever came to hand, grass, hay, twigs, cardboard, branches or corrugated metal and inside boys would plot to attack another den somewhere. Perhaps you'd be even luckier and you'd convince a young girl to cast her giggling eyes over some torn scrap of girlie mag, usually found with cigarette burn mutilations, in the hope that she would double dare to copy some of the poses for you or your mates.” Lyrics Let's make a den What shall we use? Make it out of hay Who will be leader? In it we can play at both being mothers and fathers until we have children of our own Let's make a den What shall we use? Make it out of wood Who will be leader? Wouldn't it be good if we could fight off rival gangs and take total possession of the hill For the rest of our days? Isn't that what we can all look forward to when we grow up? Isn't that what we can all look forward to? Behind the door, women and men Love and war inside of our den Let's make a den What shall we use? Make it out of bricks Who will be leader? In it how the sticks and stones will fly but my oh my won't we have fun when later on we patch it up? Let's make a den What shall we use? Make it from cement Who will be leader? In it we can pent up all of our fears but give presents each Christmas like there was nothing ever wrong For the rest of our days Isn't that what we can all look forward to when we grow up? Isn't that what we can all look forward to? Behind the door, women and men Love and war inside of their den Well you can wear your brand new nurse's outfit, And I can wear my brand new cowboy suit Everything unchanging Just furniture arranging Let's make a den What shall we use? Make it underground Who will be leader? Protect us from the flash and sound of the big stick they drop just to stop us from cuddling and hanging on For the rest of our days Category:Discography Category:Songs by Andy Partridge